Diamond Youth to perform at West Chester's Note

When bands are new on the scene, many of them have tales of togetherness -- stories of how they’ve shared living spaces in lean times, how they’ve spent months together writing songs and rehearsing material or how they’ve gone away for six straight weeks to a remote live-in recording studio to make an album.

Diamond Youth, a quartet that includes Justin Gilman (guitar), Sam Trapkin (guitar), Brendan Yates (drums) and Daniel Fang (bass), has a story that is exactly the opposite. The group, which is headlining a late afternoon show on March 2 at The Note in West Chester, is based in Baltimore -- but only loosely.

“Sam and I went to school together at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore,” said Gilman, during a phone interview last week. Brendan and Daniel knew Sam from growing up in the same music scene in Baltimore.

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“We were all in different kinds of bands. They were in hardcore and I was in indie. But, we grew up listening to the same bands -- bands like Weezer, Foo Fighters and Nirvana -- so we had a lot in common when we started.”

Diamond Youth became a functioning band even though its members headed in different directions geographically.

“I moved to Chicago because that’s where I was offered a good job in my field,” said Gilman. “Sam has since moved to New York while the other two are still in Baltimore. Daniel plays bass and drums in other bands and Brendan is the singer with a hardcore band called Turnstile.”

Taking advantage of modern technology -- tools such as 3 Way iChat, GarageBand, and Voice Notes files -- Diamond Youth has recorded three EPs. The most recent is “Orange”, which was released on January 22.

“We’re spread out in different cities most of the time so we pass files back and forth over the Internet,” said Gilman. “We write on our own and send it to each other.

“When we get together to play some shows, we’ll plan for a day to practice and work on things. There is a lack of personal time for us as a band. I think about it. But, the way we’re doing it has worked out well so far.”

“Orange”, which was released on Top Shelf Records, was recorded last August.

“We wrote the songs independently and then got together and played them together,” said Gilman. “We went into the studio with producer Brian McTernan. We did the album at his Salad Days Studio in Fells Point.

“We called it ‘Orange’ because it’s just a cool word that represents the energy of the band. Our music is pretty powerful. It rocks hard. It’s a different sound -- but we still have some bangers.”

Diamond Youth will perform on March 2 at 5 p.m. at The Note (142 E. Market St., West Chester, 484-947-5713, www.thenotewc.com). Tickets are $12.